BuzzCity reports surprise growth of mobile internet in Middle East

myGamma Global Mobile Advertising Index shows growth following changes to mobile operator tariffs


London, 22 April, 2008 : BuzzCity (www.buzzcity.com), a provider of global wireless communities and consumer services, today reveals the myGamma Global Mobile Advertising Index demonstrating the popularity of its mobile social network. BuzzCity also reports surprise growth for demand of its service in Egypt and Saudi Arabia which will surprise both the global mobile community and digital advertising industries. It is likely the growth is directly linked with changes in mobile operator business models offering affordable and understandable mobile data packages.

myGamma Global Mobile Advertising Index
The following statistics shows advertising page views in the first quarter of 2008.

  1. Indonesia: 654 million (up 13328% on Q1 2007)
  2. India: 577 million (up 1522%)
  3. South Africa: 426 million (up 418%)
  4. USA: 132 million (up 917%)
  5. Kenya: 79 million (up 424%)
  6. Romania: 57 million (up 446%)
  7. Bangladesh: 53 million (up 305%)
  8. China: 37 million (up 6053%)
  9. Brunei: 35 million (up 221%)
  10. Pakistan: 35 million (up 814%)

BuzzCity's myGamma social network service on mobiles operates on an ad-supported model as a primary source of revenue. Advertisements are served on myGamma and on more than 2,000 publisher sites globally. BuzzCity tracks the growth of the network and by extension, the growth of the mobile internet in more than 70 countries around the world.

The company recently announced plans for a US office, a market where traffic has grown more than 900%, putting the US in 4th place. BuzzCity expects this to grow to more than 100 million page views per month in the next quarter. In 21st place is Canada, with 5 million page views per month, which has made a phenomenal growth of 11,800% over the last 15 months. This may mark the growth of a new market in North America.

In Q1 of 2007 the myGamma banner network served a little over 260 million banners over its top 10 high traffic countries South Africa, India, Thailand, Kenya, Bangladesh, Brunei, USA, Romania, Nigeria and Malaysia. Over the first quarter of 2008, the Top 10 countries served more than 2 billion ads, a growth of 800%. The Top 10 also saw some new entrants, with Indonesia, China and Pakistan replacing Thailand, Nigeria & Malaysia which collectively served about 60% of the 3 billion ads served across the network..

KF Lai, CEO of BuzzCity, commented on the news: "In Q1 of 2008, we served more than 26 million banner advertisements to Egyptian users. This is a growth of 5,400% against the first quarter of 2007 when we served only 490,000 impressions. During this period, Saudi Arabian traffic grew by nearly 900% to 22 million banners. In both cases, increased mobile penetration and healthy competition among carriers invariably sees more consumer activity on the mobile internet. We are only going to see more of this, everywhere."

Advertisers, such as Mozat in Singapore, have been quick to take advantage of the rise of the mobile internet in the Middle East and have targeted campaigns to Egypt and Saudi Arabia. BuzzCity has expanded its network to deploy new services in Croatia, Iran, Namibia, Nepal, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

Download the myGamma Global Mobile Advertising Index

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For more information, please contact:

Skywrite Communications
Catriona Biggart/Claudia Bate
Tel: +44 20 7608 4650
Email: buzzcity@skywritecomms.com


About BuzzCity
BuzzCity is a developer of global wireless communities and consumer services. Established in 1999 in Singapore, BuzzCity today operates the world’s largest wireless community - mygamma.com - for two distinct audiences: the newly connected emerging middle class in developing markets and the blue collar sector in developed regions. These "unwired" consumers are accessing the mobile Internet on their phones due to widespread and affordable wireless access.

BuzzCity provides marketers with unprecedented opportunities to reach this audience via its far-reaching advertising, merchant and publisher programs. Additional information can be found at www.buzzcity.com.

Notes:
BuzzCity was recently awarded “Best Mobile Social Networking Service” at the GSMA Global Mobile Awards 2008.